SPE CIES 2. ORIOL US MUTJi TUS. * 
ORCHARD ORIOLE. 
[Plate IV.] 
Bastard Baltimore, Catesby, i, 49. — Le Baltimore batard, Buf- 
FON, III, 233. PI. enl. 506. — Oriolus sptirius, Gmel. Syst. i, p. 
389. — Lath. Syn. ii, p. 433, 20, p. 437, 24. — Baktram, p. 290. 
— Pealk’s Museum, J^o. 1508. 
There are no circumstances, relating to birds, which tend 
so much to render their history obscure and perplexing, as the 
various changes of colour which many of them undergo. These 
changes are in some cases periodical, in others progressive; and 
are frequently so extraordinary, that, unless the naturalist has 
resided for years in the country where the birds inhabit, and 
has examined them at almost every season, he is extremely lia- 
ble to be mistaken and imposed on by their novel appearance. 
Numerous instances of this kind might be cited, from the pages 
of European writers, in which the same bird has been described 
two, three, and even four different times, by the same person; 
and each time as a different kind. The species we are now about 
to examine is a remarkable example of this; and as it has never 
to my knowledge been either accurately figured or described, I 
have devoted one plate to the elucidation of its history. 
The Count de Buffon, in introducing what he supposed to be 
the male of this bird, but which appears evidently to have been 
the female of the Baltimore Oriole, makes the following obser- 
* 0. Spurius Linn, wliich name must be adopted. Ictenis minor spurhis, 
Bniss. II, 111, pi. 10, Jig. 3. — Carouge de Cayenne, Buff. PL Enl. 607, fig. 1, 
(adult male.) Carouge du Cap de bonne Espdranee, Buff. Pi. Enl. 607, fig. 2, 
(female.) JUerle d gorge noire de St. Domingue, Buff. Pi. Enl. 559, (yo>in,t^ 
male.) 
VOL. I. — 3 F 
